1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an apparatus, a system, and a method for detecting accidental ingestion by animals.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been a recent increase in the number of pet owners that consider an animal bred at home to be a “member of the family” instead of a simple pet. Such owners are extremely attentive to a state of health of the animal being bred, and assess the state of health by checking the amount of food, the amount and state of excrement, hair condition, skin condition, and the like.
Meanwhile, incidents of accidental ingestion where an animal inadvertently swallows an object other than food continue to occur. An owner must be careful not to leave objects that can be swallowed by an animal within a range of action of the animal. However, no matter how careful the owner may be, there is always a chance that the animal may seek out and swallow an object that the owner had hidden in a closet or that the animal may break an object in the owner's absence and swallow one of the fragments.
When an accidental ingestion by an animal occurs, depending on what had been swallowed, the animal may experience gastric or intestinal obstruction which may cause violent vomiting or appetite loss. Since delayed medical attention may prove fatal, the owner must immediately take the animal to a veterinary upon realizing that accidental ingestion has occurred. However, since accidental ingestion by an animal is not always immediately manifested as a symptom, the owner often fails to realize that accidental ingestion by the animal has occurred for a certain amount of time after the accidental ingestion had taken place.
Conventionally, there is a system that determines whether or not a bolus has passed through the esophagus by measuring and analyzing a sound of laryngeal action that accompanies a swallowing action of a measurement subject for the purpose of measuring a swallowing function of a patient with a swallowing (swallowing of food or a fluid) disorder (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2013-017694).
In addition, there is a system which outputs stimuli (a scent or a sound) that an animal dislikes upon detecting an object approaching the mouth of the animal for the purpose of restricting feeding of the animal (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2012-070671).
However, the configuration of the prior art requires further improvements.